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Essay On Automated Dialoge Replacement
Hi everyone,
I’m in semester 2 of my first year of Broadcasting Television, Mohawk College.
I Have an Essay I am working on, Automated Dialogue Replacement(the technical side). I have a few questions I would like to ask if that is alright. The criteria for the essay is I have to talk to some professionals and or people in the business and it seems I’m at the right place.
The first question is what are the advances or changes in technology?
I first talk about “looping” — playing back a physical loop of film repeatedly until a good take is recorded onto mag stock. With the advent of SMPTE time code and microprocessor controlled auto-locaters on tape decks and video decks, the newer process was “automatic” by comparison.
the stages of acquiring mastery in this technique and the potential future value of mastering this technique.
lastly, the equipment required. This one is straight forward, a isolated room, the right microphone, monitors, audio switcher.
It someone could help me out it would be much appreciated.
Sincerely
Trevor Bye
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6 Replies
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Some people still use auto-locators and tape in 2010? Seriously?
For every single ADR session I’ve done in the last few years (Flahspoint, Bloodletting, Degrassi…), we received the scenes to rework as QT files with BITC. Other times, we get Beta SP tapes of the offline and digitize that to QT. We set that up in a PT session with a range marker for every loop, slap some post-sync beeps in front of all the loops and jump from one loop to the other simply by jumping to the marker matching the loop number. Depending on the talent, I rarely actually loop the line. Usually, after one playback, the talent can nail the rhythm (if the talent has talent, that is). Pretty much every dialog editor asks for one boom track and one lav track and it’s up to the recording engineer to adapt to the the dialog editor’s preferred setup.
Mastery of this technique is not very specific. Any post engineer quick enough on his feet can do ADR sessions. Once the setup is done, it’s really very straightforward. It’s one of the least complicated types of session. It’s as straightforward for the dialog editor, as he gets a PT session, imports the tracks and gets the ADR takes right on top of the set takes. It’s pretty much business as usual for him after that.
Equipment is relatively simple, though you need a fully-referenced, timecode-enabled DAW and video setup to do things by the book. A selection of mics is always good to have to match the source and a lavalier mic is usually necessary. Clean, unflattering preamps are also good to have. You also need a video setup for the talent that will not leak high frequencies into the mic.
If I had to pinpoint the one operation in sound post where technology has changed the game the most, it would probably be ADR. What used to take half a day of set-up with four different machines and a few hours of recording can now be done on a whim, with a 20-minute setup in one computer and a 40-minute session. SourceConnect has opened the door to dialog editors directly listening in on sessions and pulling favorite takes on the fly from anywhere in the world, which steamlines the process even further.
If you have any more questions, post them and I shall try to answer them.
IHTH
JC Boulay
Technical Director
Audio Z
Montreal, Canada
http://www.audioz.com -
JC – excellent and comprehensive reply!
To add, I think that the looping facilities within newer pro tools have mad a big difference, allowing multiple recordings of a cue, and then instant flipping and editing between them.
Peter -
We use ISDN for remotely monitored ADR. It allows the other end to chase our timecode and display picture in sync. Here’s an excellent article about ADR by the Cow’s Tim Wilson.
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.8 QT7.6.4 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.1, Motion 4.0.1, Comp 3.5.1, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.1)Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN
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Hi John. Your post interested me. Ive only ever used isdn for tc control of a picture elsewhere using 2 audiofiles years ago, and the pictures were on vtrs with matching tc bothe ends.
Coule you elaborate (as complicated as you like) on the method using your pro tools as i have the same sync io and pt hd system as you, using isdn as the tc transferrer. How do you arrange the slaving etc etc.
I know a few people have worked on an IP based system of pictue contol via google, but ive not heard its a go yet.
Cheers
Peter -
For the ISDN setup I’ve used a combination of 4 settings: Layer 3 (I think we did a Layer 2 session once) Stereo or Dual Mono at 48k or 32k sample rate. I basically setup according to the receiving (chasing) studio. When I asked why a 32k sample rate they said they’d had better luck with the tc. But I’ve used 48k with some studios and never had any trouble. I’ve never been the chaser, only the chasee. We almost chased a couple of weeks ago for the new Barry Levinson film, “You Don’t know Jack,” but the schedule changed at the last minute.
As for setting up the Sync IO:
In Setup Menu > Session:
Clock Source – Sync IO
Time Code Rate – specified – usually we get a 29.97 QT of pictureSync Setup to Generate tc External t/c offsets 0
Clock Ref – Video Ref
Positional Ref – Generate
Video Format – NTSCTime Code Settings
Generator – CHECK “Using SYNC”
Freewheel – NONE
Pull Up/Down – None or as specifiedSync Setup to Chase tc External t/c offsets 0
Clock Ref – Video Ref
Positional Ref – LTC
Video Format – NTSCTime Code Settings
Generator – UNCHECK “Using SYNC”
Freewheel – the number frames of bad t/c tolerated before stopping – 8 is default, higher as necessary
Pull Up/Down – None or as specifiedThat’s pretty much it. Make sure the Transport is Online. I always forget. Also, I always insist on a test hookup with picyure before the actual session with studios I’ve not worked with before.
John
MacPro 8-core 2.8GHz 8 GB RAM OS 10.5.8 QT7.6.4 Kona 3 Dual Cinema 23 ATI Radeon HD 3870, 24″ TV-Logic Monitor, ATTO ExpressSAS R380 RAID Adapter, PDE enclosure with 8-drive 6TB RAID 5
FCS 3 (FCP 7.0.1, Motion 4.0.1, Comp 3.5.1, DVDSP 4.2.2, Color 1.5.1)Pro Tools HD w SYNC IO & 192 Digital I/O, Yamaha DM1000, Millennia Media HV-3C, Neumann U87, Schoeps Mk41 mics, Genelec Monitors, PrimaLT ISDN
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And a lot of ADR has been made unnecessary due to Vocalign software.
The Internet is pretty amazing. One google later and I found the article I wrote for Millimeter in 1997 (and never expected them to use as online content without additional compensation)
Regardless, it’s here. https://digitalcontentproducer.com/mag/video_read_lips/
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